Reflections of Year 28!

What a year it's been! Today I turn 29 years old. In the famous Grey's Anatomy quote I remember, "How did I get this old? How do I make it stop?".  Regardless, getting a year older isn't so bad when the past year has truly been one of the greatest years of my entire life. 

Let's recap a bit: 

In January, my sorority sister's little sister (a mouthful) moved into my apartment! Anja was a great addition to the apt and provided lots of great conversations and encouragement to my life in one of the busiest seasons ever. Also this month I started my last semester of the Graduate Program I did at Nyack College! In addition, school came with an internship at Abounding Grace Ministries. I spent my Wednesday's and Sunday mornings with these guys below! I learned so much about New York, the Lower East Side, and what serving your community truly is truly like.  

In February, one of my best friends from college, Candace, had a baby! I have LOVED getting to see Fairley grow up this year and having her close by! They live a short train ride up on the UWS! She is so cute... obviously :)

The spring also came a new season of running! I had only run 1 half marathon before the Spring and in January I acquired a running coach, Michele. I have gained an incredible amount of knowledge about the sport of running and I would NOT be the runner I am today without her. She has believed in me, and literally spoken to me on almost a daily basis since the end of January. I hope she knows how much I appreciate her and the encouragement, advice, and great accountability she provides for me. I am blessed! I ran 3 half marathons this Spring under her guidance: DC, More/Fitness, and the Brooklyn Half that holds my current PR of 2:07:04! An injury kept me sidelined for most of the summer, but I was fully ready to tackle marathon training by the end of July. 

In May, my best friend in Austin, Mandy brought home her son from Uganda! David is such an incredible child and he is also the cutest kid ever. My best friends are really good at this whole kid/parent thing. I'm so proud of them!

I spent three wonderful weeks in Texas this summer with family and friends, and saw one of my best friends from childhood get married! It was such an incredible weekend. 

This night was amazing.

In September I finished up my internship with Abounding Grace, and also left my Admissions job at Nyack College to take a position with, The King's College in Downtown Manhattan. I am a Registration Coordinator and basically try to make students lives happy by giving them advice on classes and sorting data out on things that you might not find interesting the way that I do. I'm learning a lot about academia, and college students. So far... I love it. Look I have a a business card to prove it! Call me today! It's my birthday! :) 

Also in September, I went to Brownwood for my 10  YEAR HIGH SCHOOL REUNION! It was such a blast. I loved being home, seeing old friends, and catching up on life after 10 years. Wow!  I also ran the Philadelphia Half Marathon and celebrated my 1 year anniversary of racing! What a day :)



OH OH, I forgot to mention that at the end of August I sadly said goodbye to Anja, and gained Elise, also a Texan. I traded my longhorn roommate for an aggie. Yes, I'm still shocked. Jokes aside, this girl has been a vital part of my life this Fall. I have LOVED having her at the apartment... and at work. Oh yes, we are also coworkers. We spend a lot of time together to say the least. We always have ridiculous things to talk about, hilarious emails to forward, and lots of laughs and good conversations late at night. I am beyond blessed to get to live with this girl and do life with her in this crazy city. She is an excellent roommate and friend. Love her so much! She has quickly become one of my absolute favorite people in NYC. She and my other roommate, London truly get a gold star for putting up with me while I was training for a marathon. I was a bit of a nut job at times, and they never complained one bit.

Speaking of marathon training, you all know I was training for the NYC Marathon that got cancelled because of the destruction of hurricane Sandy. I never wrote a blog post sharing my thoughts about this but a brief synopsis is basically that I completely agree why they canceled it but the timing was terrible for all those traveling here. I lost nothing due to the cancelation because I got to run a marathon less than a week later. However, it was not the marathon I had trained for. It was not the marathon that I thought would be my first. And you know what? It hurt a little. I cried on Saturday morning, November 3rd on the treadmill, I cried when I saw the Queensboro bridge Saturday night after dinner with friends on the Upper East Side, and I cried a bit a Marathon Sunday while I ran with THOUSANDS of other runners in Central Park. It was so surreal that something I had trained for for months was not happening. A day I had dreamed about for over a year was not happening and you know what? It hurt. I won't apologize for it hurting either. Obviously, I'm over it now because I did get to run a marathon, and my training did not go wasted! Praise God!

I ran the Richmond Marathon and finished in 4:39:15! I have never felt more accomplished. It was the greatest day this year and I will always be so so so proud to be a marathoner! Life ATM (After the Marathon as Elise calls it) has been fantastic. I am loving sleeping in on Saturdays, running lower mileage, and having lots of time back to do other things. I will start training again after the new year, but for now let the 5K revolution continue. This year, I ran 3 official 5Ks, 4 half marathons, and 1 marathon and almost 1000 miles for the year! Needless to say, my legs have welcomed a break.

Here we are today... December 10th. This is the first day of the last year of my twenties. I have learned so much these past 9 years. I plan to make this year epic. In the next few weeks I plan to come up with 30 things I want to do before I'm 30. Hold me to them all. 

What an incredible year it has been. I have met so many new friends in NY, mostly runners, and have felt like this place truly is exactly where I am supposed to be for now. It is not a surprise that things continue to fall into place so easily as they have. God's hand has been over each day of my life here, and I have been truly blessed. Here's to year 29! Cheers.

My favorite verse this year:

"The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still." Exodus 14:14

A few pics:

                       Prospect Park 5K Group!            Max Brenner with friends!

Carla, Emily and I got photographed for a food blog. Cool.

Meeting two of my favorite elite runners: Josh Cox and Desi Davila with my absolute favorite running friend, Katie. (She moved... and I miss her.)

I am 29 years young today. Over and out.